An APPLICATION to acquire the "Dynaco" trade name was made by Radial Engineering of Canada on October 23, 2014. This does not mean that the application will be approved. The Dynaco trade name for audio gear is held by ESS Laboratory, INC in Sacramento, CA a division of Marlborough Enterprises, LTD. Personally, I do not see how their application can be approved if the trade name is already held by another company ? A special thanks to Kevin of Dynakitparts for providing me with most of this information on this item ...

Nothing to stop the current holder from selling the name I suppose, assUming they do own it free and clear. I looked up ESS Labs, and they're a speaker & headphone company over in LaLa Land that may have been planning on branching out at one time?

They also hold a license to produce Heil air transformers, but that's just a rental ... the actual patent still belongs to the inventor.

Looks like they also planned to get into mobile video, but apparently on hold as well ...

I wouldn't worry about any of the tech ... I'd think that would all be public domain by now.

The same Canadian company has acquired the "Hafler" name. You can find out more at the following website:

hafler.com

Nothing, however, about how it has acquired the "Dynaco" name.

Radial Eng. was a Hafler distributor in Canada. The new Hafler products it offers have nothing to do with the Hafler Co., except the name.

Page 44 in the May/June issue of TAS has an advertisement for a Hafler headphone amp. They have gotten audio engineer Al Schmitt to endorse their products. We will need to take a wait and see attitude. Looks kind of suspicious!

Sorry to dredge up this old thread but apparently Radial Engineering has been given an "interim" Dynaco trademark and will be producing a wired Dynaco ST-70 Series III amp soon. See link below for more info and a photo of this amp.

New Dynaco ST-70 Series III

Kevin Devaney of Dynakitparts says though that Panor Corp was awarded an extension of their Dynaco trademark name in January of 2016 and has challenged the interim trademark given to Radial Engineering. Somehow the Canadian Dynaco Company run by a Dan Frasier will be introducing this new amp at the Munich High End show anyhow ?

As someone who lives north of the 49, I kind of took offense at that comment.An American company tried and failed to bring the name back to the audio landscape. A valiant effort,not fulfilling just the same.Now we have an upstart who happens to be based up here. Is it their wish to honour the Dynaco/Hafler tradition or just cashing in onthe famous names?I hope its the former as it would great for our favorite equipment to get a new lease on life andhopefully flourish.Just a thought IMHO.

The description makes it sound kind of like a hodgepodge of a Triode USA type driver, a Triode USA type power supply, Weber copper cap type parts instead of a 5AR4 (no choice given), and something like the old Van Alstine input filter.

In October of 2014, I sold my ST-70 amp to a guy who was associated with Radial Engineering. He showed me several of his Web sites on which they sold mainly musical instrument and sound reinforcement gear. He claimed they were going to study the amp and design an updated version. I guess they weren't kidding around!

His name was Peter Janis and he said he was based in Vancouver, BC. I was having some credibility issues and told him it was a cash - local sale only, and he arranged for me to take it to his local distributor, who handed me my asking price in cash.

That suit would stop them from branding it Dynaco, but I'm betting no one owns Hafler as a trade name. And Series III is probably generic enough that Panor would not be able to stop them from using it.

Captain, Van Alstine's amp is branded as the AVA U-70, so he never infringed. As for the intellectual property, he designed his own driver circuit, and the rest of it was generic enough that he was safe. Oddly, my amp was his mod, and I was never very happy with it. I listened to it for 8 years, wondering why it didn't sound as good as my solid state rig. When I rebuilt an ST-35, I couldn't wait to get rid of it. If only I had known about VTA before I paid Cranky Franky big bucks for it!

peterh wrote:The dynaco-to-be was had extremly ugly looking covers. I also noted that they wind mains transformer for 120 and 220V . 120 is ok for the US masket, but in europe we have 230V :-)

Also noted that input impedance of the so called st-70 was 2k !! What are they thinking of ??

Thise covers are probably the entire marketing identity for this small "family" of costly home audio products.

I'm thinking the "2k" input impedance is a product of the inept technical mind of the article's author. Most of the writers of glossy audiophile websites don't have a sound basis for their technical "evaluations."

One cannot neglect the possibility that it might be a well-sounding amp that may give competitors a fight. We must not blind ourselfs with an ever lasting demand for "the cheapest" , in the hifi arenaprice is not the no1 criteria it's as always sound quality.

Same goes for the preamp, it just might be a nice combination of properties soundwise althoughi personally find the "design" questionable. I would never buy one as i have my vta-70 that is "end-of-search" for me in my current living.

I submit that if you want a brand new Dynaco ST70 that you simply click on the button below. It will cost you $1185 and I will personally guarantee that it will sound better than anything Radial, Panor, Hafler, or Dynaco ever made.No need to spend $2500 on a new package with inferior "copycat" engineeringhttp://www.tubes4hifi.com/bob.htm#ST70